- DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Norah Story, “GAMBLE, WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gamble_william_11E.html
- DCB profile notes:
- Merchant, miller, and land developer; b. 5 Aug. 1805 at Kingston, Upper Canada, son of John Gamble, surgeon of the Queen’s Rangers, and Isabella Elizabeth Clarke; m. 10 Dec. 1833 Elizabeth Bowles Brenchley, and they had one daughter; d. 20 March 1881 in Toronto, Ont.
- Educated in Kingston, William Gamble came to York (Toronto) in 1820 with his widowed mother and younger brother, Joseph Clarke Gamble. William became a partner with another brother, John William, in a general store about 1822 and its sole owner in 1827.
- In 1835 he sold his share in the store to Birchall and bought the King’s Mill on the Humber River, in Etobicoke Township, from Thomas Fisher with whom he continued to have many business dealings. The establishment, which Gamble renamed Milton Mill, consisted of a sawmill, nail factory, inn, stables, and store. In 1837–38 Gamble added a grist-mill and distillery, expanded the stables, and built a hotel in place of the inn. The grist-mill was destroyed by fire in 1847 and rebuilt on a larger scale. Gamble also acquired ships to transport his neighbours’ excess cereals and his own and Fisher’s flour to Toronto.
- Over the years William Gamble had held a number of public offices. In 1833 he was appointed to the town of York Board of Health, established that year in anticipation of an outbreak of cholera. He was made a justice of the peace the same year and served on the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1842. He refused a commission in the 3rd York Regiment of militia in 1836, probably because his business enterprises required so much of his time. Gamble became a director of the Bank of Upper Canada in 1829, and of the British America Fire and Life Assurance Company in 1834. In 1846 he donated the site for an Anglican church, St George’s-on-the-Hill (Islington), and served as warden from 1846 to 1848 and from 1851 to 1852. His financial difficulties did not diminish the business community’s respect for him: he was active in founding the Bank of Toronto, incorporated in 1855, and was vice-president of its provisional board.
- William Gamble’s career illustrates the important role of the merchant miller who, by providing a base for one or two villages and, with or without government aid, building roads and bridges, helped to open up townships for rapid settlement. The repeal of the Corn Laws and the new transportation patterns established by the developing railway networks had much to do with placing this kind of pioneer enterprise in jeopardy.
- Son of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3071
- Find a GRAVE: Cannot locate
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